Sphero’s BB-8 droid toy can now be controlled with the Force

The band tracks the wearer’s movements to allow them to tell BB-8 where to go simply by making gestures with their hand. The adorable spherical droid captured fans’ imaginations as soon as he was revealed, and the merchandising was there to capture their wallets in turn.

The prototype we played with wasn’t quite complete, but it was fully controllable with simple force-esque movements such as pushing your wrist/hand forward to move BB-8 forward…

Sphero, maker of the coolest Star Wars BB-8 Droid toy, has unveiled the Star Wars Force Band by Sphero at the CES 2016. The band will work with the original BB-8, but Sphero plans on launching a “battle worn” version of the droid as well, with appropriate wear and tear from its time on Jakku. We’ll see the new, grungier, force-controlled BB-8 sometime in the fall of 2016. That’s probably best, as it now looks a bit too clunky (even accounting for the fact a child is wearing it in the clip).

It recognises gestures and can trigger pre-programmed moves, like spinning on the spot or nodding, and a colour-changing LED on the band prototype shows which control mode you’re in.

When finally available the wearable will be sold as a bundle with Sphero’s BB-8, or on its own for every one who already has one of the RC toys, but is exhausted of being completely dependent on the touchscreen app for interacting with it. The key word there being “need”, of course.